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“The Final Inch”, a film documenting the historic effort to eradicate Polio in India, has been nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Documentary (Short Film) due to be announced (in L
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New Delhi, 18 February 2009: “The Final Inch”, a film documenting the historic effort to eradicate Polio in India, has been nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Documentary (Short Film) due to be announced (in Los Angeles) this Sunday.

In endemic states of U.P. and Bihar, more than 465,000 health workers go door-to-door every six to eight weeks vaccinating over 58 million children under five, overcoming physical, logistical and sometimes cultural barriers to ensure every child takes the oral polio vaccine. The film celebrates this extraordinary human effort that makes up one of the "world's largest, non-military armies" in history.

The documentary film made by Vermillon Films and Google.org honours the work, sprite and resilience of the millions of frontline workers in the Indian Polio Eradication Programme. The nomination comes at a critical time for the polio eradication programme, when the Government of India inches closer to eradicating the disease. Transmission of the virus has been confined to only two northern states – Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Type 2 poliovirus has already been eradicated in India. What is required now is to continue the relentless efforts to stop the most virulent type 1 polio virus, which is very near elimination, by 2009. This achievement will bring the programme closer than the "final inch" to polio eradication in India.

In endemic states of U.P. and Bihar, more than 465,000 health workers go door-to-door every six to eight weeks vaccinating over 58 million children under five, overcoming physical, logistical and sometimes cultural barriers to ensure every child takes the oral polio vaccine. The film celebrates this extraordinary human effort that makes up one of the "world's largest, non-military armies" in history.

"We have a very narrow window of opportunity to eradicate polio from India because of climate change," said Executive Director of Google.org, Dr. Larry Brilliant. "If we miss it now and sea levels rise and water borne diseases increase, we will never have another chance to rid Asia of this terrible disease. I worked in the smallpox and polio eradication programmes at the World Health Organization (WHO) before coming to Google. We at Google.org made this film because we wanted to make sure all partners continue to unite together for this final battle in India's war against polio."

"Polio eradication is the largest public health programme in India, with very strong community support behind it", says from the Ministry of Health, Dr. Sunil Khaparde. "This massive mobilization of the state machinery is a demonstration of the nation's commitment to eradicate this terrible disease from India."

The story told in “The Final Inch” is as much about the importance of the messengers as it is about the message itself. The movie follows Munzareen Fatima, a dedicated and passionate community mobilizer who works with the UNICEF-led Social Mobilization Network. Munzareen's tenacious house-to-house visits demonstrate the communication hurdles these workers must overcome to ensure every child under five receives the oral polio vaccine each round. The story told in “The Final Inch” is as much about the importance of the messengers as it is about the message itself. The movie follows Munzareen Fatima, a dedicated and passionate community mobilizer who works with the UNICEF-led Social Mobilization Network. Munzareen's tenacious house-to-house visits demonstrate the communication hurdles these workers must overcome to ensure every child under five receives the oral polio vaccine each round. "The community mobilizers are at the heart of the communication effort for polio. Without them the eradication of polio simply will not happen. They are from the local communities and they work tirelessly to make sure every family knows the importance of vaccinating their child every round”, says UNICEF's Chief of Polio, Lieven Desomer.

Highlighted in the film in addition to Munzareen Fatima are Rotary volunteers preparing to mobilize children to the Polio Booth and Dr. Ashfaq Bhat from WHO's National Polio Surveillance Project (NPSP). "Dr. Bhat", who travels into the backwaters of India's Ganges Basin in Bihar by boat and foot to detect cases of polio and monitor the quality of the vaccination campaign, "this illustrates the dedication of the tremendous workforce that is working to vaccinate every child in the most tenacious polio reservoirs of U.P. and Bihar", says Project Manager of the WHO's NPSP in India, Dr. Hamid Jafari. "These heroes are not only writing history, they are paving the way for other endemic countries – Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria - to succeed."

Today, the Indian Polio Eradication Programme is one of the largest and most successful public health initiatives in history. The Polio Partnership, which consists of Rotary International, WHO, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centres for Disease Control (CDC), has been partnering with the Government of India since the inception of the programme and applauds "The Final Inch" to record this sterling endeavour.

Filmed in a high-definition cinematic style, “The Final Inch” captures the stories of the campaign's frontline workers and serves as a tribute and an inspiration of hope that polio can and will be eradicated in India.

“The Final Inch” will air in the U.S. on HBO on World Health Day, April 7th 2009.